The WD My Book Live is a NAS device based on Debian Linux, Since Debian stopped supporting this processor (APM82181), the device has received no updates and will probably never, so the next best thing to do in my opinion is to install openWRT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WARNING<\/strong>: I recently got a second MyBook Live device, tried installing 23.05.0 but for some reason, i could not get networking to work, So i simply installed V21, then upgraded to 23… there was probably just something I was missing, but i could not be bothered figuring it out, this was a faster way…<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1- Only the first few paragraphs of this tutorial (STEPS 1 THROUGH 6) are the instructions you need<\/strong>, the remaining is just for extra reference and in short you don’t need to read it to have your device running, but I do recommend YOU SKIM THE WHOLE THING BEFORE YOU START<\/strong>. Move any data you may have on the drive to a temporary location outside the NAS drive. this has to be done before taking the drive apart as the unconventional 64 kB block size of the disk will be nothing but trouble if you want to extract the data while mounting the disk to a linux PC for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have included photos to help you do that, it is not rocket science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n and mount it to a linux PC (Windows might work with software such as etcher, but i have no guarantees).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Go to the drive’s page on the openwrt website (Here<\/a>), and download it to your Linux (Or windows) PC<\/p>\n\n\n\n Decompress the file, then copy it to the drive with a command similar to the command below, but make 100% sure to replace sdx with your own drive designation<\/p>\n\n\n\n Write the firmware to the disk, overwriting it, and effectively loosing any data you did not backup in step 1<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nothing to say here, this is the reverse of step 2<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once it is in the enclosure, you can not just connect it to your router as it in itself has this port defined as 192.168.1.1 and is serving dhcp !<\/p>\n\n\n\n At this stage, your device will boot, but you will need to create\/expand the data partition, the partition that should not be overwritten when you upgrade the firmware for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As soon as gdisk opens, you may be presented with the following message, if so<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chose 1 to maintain the 2 partitions we have, Now hit the command (w) to write and confirm, then quit, gdisk has just switched your disk to GPT from MBR, now run gdisk again the same way (gdisk -i \/dev\/sda)<\/p>\n\n\n\n n for new partition, accept the (3) for partition number, use the number (2097152<\/strong>) for alignment with 4K sector advanced format nearest to the 1GB mark<\/p>\n\n\n\n You might find a file named fstab in \/etc, this is not the file that needs to be edited, the one you are seeking is in \/etc\/config\/fstab<\/strong> in my case, the UUID was as follows UUID=”9643bd00-f117-4074-a252-7ea30a5174e2″ yours will certainly be different, so in my fstab i added the following lines near the end<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, network sharing is what i was originally interested in when i got this unit, and it is why I am replacing it’s firmware, so to installing samba<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, add the following line to \/etc\/passwd to add me as a user to the system<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or, if you do not want to add the user manually, you can install the adduser package, and add the users through it like so<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, for either method from the above, run the command<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, since this is a NAS device, disk tools may be a good idea<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes it is, I have found many people asking if the hardware supports drives over 2TB, the answer is yes, but you will have to use the GPT rather than the MBR (See steps above)<\/p>\n\n\n\n it comes from WDs cloud service, bottom line is that many devices were completely wiped remotely by malicious users and it is unknown if the data itself leaked, so yes, it is very serious<\/p>\n\n\n\n Quick factory restore is probably what you are looking for, the later seems to do a zero fill on the hard drive after performing a factory restore to disallow data retrieval (For example before you sell it), you can verify this by logging in using SSH, and by the fact that the tool tips state something to that effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\nBefore you start<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2- This procedure requires you to take the disk out and install it on a PC to switch the firmware, then put it back
3- The upgrade will delete all your data, You will need to move your data that is already on your WD NAS drive somewhere else while the upgrade is ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\nStep 1: <\/strong>Move any existing data BEFORE TAKING APART.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Step 2: Take the disk apart<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Step 3: Mount the disk on a linux PC (Windows and MAC should work)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Step 4: Download the openWRT firmware<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Step 5: Write the firmware to the disk.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
dd if=\/root\/wdsata.img of=\/dev\/sdx bs=64k<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Step 6: Put the drive back in the enclosure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Step 8: Create the data partition<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
opkg update\nopkg install gdisk blkid openssh-sftp-server block-mount\ngdisk -i \/dev\/sda<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Found valid MBR and corrupt GPT. Which do you want to use? (Using the\nGPT MAY permit recovery of GPT data.)\n 1 - MBR\n 2 - GPT\n 3 - Create blank GPT<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
mkfs.ext4 \/dev\/sda3\nmkdir \/share\nblkid \/dev\/sda3<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
config mount\noption target '\/share'\noption uuid '9643bd00-f117-4074-a252-7ea30a5174e2'\noption enabled '1'<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
opkg update && opkg install samba4-server luci-app-samba4<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
yazeed:*:1000:65534:yazeed:\/var:\/bin\/false<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
opkg install shadow-useradd\nuseradd yazeed\nUnfortunately, this command won't do and you will have to edit it in the passwords file\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
passwd yazeed\nsmbpasswd -a yazeed\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
opkg install hd-idle luci-app-hd-idle hdparm\n\nTo check if disk is spinning, try the command\nhdparm -C \/dev\/sda\nThe responce active\/idle means it is spinning<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
You are done.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
FAQ<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
Is the hardware and the new openWRT firmware compatible with my 8TB hard drive<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
about the original firmware<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What is that vulnerability about<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What is the difference between quick factory restore and full factory restore<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Inspecting the device<\/h1>\n\n\n\n